Center for Forest Business

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Where were Forest Business Students for Summer 2019?

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May 2019 Graduates:

Company, Position, Location

Georgia-Pacific, Procurement Forester, Milledgeville, GA

FORISK Consulting, Industry Analyst, Athens, GA

BTG Forestry Services, Valuation Analyst, Atlanta, GA

Carter and Carter Forest Management, LLC, Jesup, GA

Salm Schulenburg, LLC, Manager of Operation, Atlanta, GA

Returning Graduate Students:

Company, Position, Location

Rayonier Inc., Business Development Intern, Yulee, FL

Domain Capital Group, LLC., Summer Analyst, Atlanta, GA

Campbell Global, Forest Business Intern, Portland, OR

FORISK Consulting, Forest Finance Intern, Athens, GA

Georgia- Pacific, Procurement Forester Intern, Brookneal, VA

Hancock Natural Resource Group, Economic Research Intern, Boston, MA

Georgia Forestry Association, Economics and Policy Intern, Forsyth, GA

Conservation Forestry, LLC., Summer Analyst, Exeter, NH

Dr. Jon Caulfield -Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of Forest Finance

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November 2016

 

The Harley Langdale, Jr. Center for Forest Business welcomes Dr. Jon Caulfield as the newest addition to Warnell’s faculty.  Caulfield joined Warnell in August of 2016 as the Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of Forest Finance, after 40 years in timberland investment, management and research.  This tenure-tract, 35% teaching, 65% research appointment expands The Langdale Center’s nationally recognized program in forest finance.  In addition to teaching courses in forest finance and economics, Professor Caulfield is developing a research program that will focus on forest finance and related topics.

Caulfield was previously Director of Research and Analysis for BTG Pactual (formerly RMK Timberland Group). He was responsible for research, analysis and distribution of forest products related economic and financial information to all areas of the timberland group.

Caulfield’s career began in 1976 when he worked as a management forester for the South African Department of Forestry. From 1984 to 1992 he was a faculty member at Auburn University School of Forestry, where he served as Assistant, then Associate Professor. From 1992 to 1996, Jon was Senior Forest Economist at Wachovia Timberland Investment Management, in Atlanta. From 1996 to 2000 he was Professor of Forest Finance at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forest Resources, during which time he founded Timberland Fiduciary Research, a consulting firm. From 2000 to 2002 Caulfield was Vice President, Research and Investment Strategy for TimberVest, LLC.  He holds Ph.D. (1984) and M.S. (1981) degrees in Forest Economics from North Carolina State University, and a B.S. (1975) in Forest Management from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Jon is author or co-author of over 100 articles, book chapters, and proceedings papers on forest finance and management. Caulfield is a long-time member of The Society of American Foresters.

The addition of Dr. Caulfield to the Warnell Faculty allows the Langdale Center for Forest Business to continue to provide outstanding forest business educational program focusing on the economic and financial aspects of the resources, markets, businesses, and policies associated with managed forests.

Weyerhaeuser Benefit Golf Tournament Raises $83,000+ for the Langdale Center for Forest Business

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Fall 2016

On Friday, September 30th Weyerhaeuser hosted its eight annual golf tournament to benefit University of Georgia’s Langdale Center for Forest Business (LCFB).  Sixty-five degrees and sunny made for a fun day at The Georgia Club for all 144 players from the forestry industry.   On behalf of the LCFB, we thank the twenty corporate sponsors, in particular the Tournament Host, Weyerhaeuser, as well as three Tournament Sponsors – Jones Lang LaSalle, Drax Biomass and WestRock. The event raised $83,890 for the LCFB to support graduate student assistantships, and travel.

A Thursday evening dinner at Flinchum’s Phoenix Banquet Hall in UGA’s Whitehall Forest kicked off the event.  More than 90 industry professionals, Center for Forest Business Faculty and graduate students attended the Thursday evening cocktail hour and low-country boil. Weyerhaeuser employees and UGA graduate students volunteered Friday to facilitate a fun day for each of the 36 teams on the course.  To conclude the two-day event, Weyerhaeuser hosted all forest business graduate students for dinner Friday evening to network, discuss career paths and express support for the industry-relevant curriculum and exposure the LCFB offers its students.

A sincere thanks to our sponsors, volunteers and participants!

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Forest Business Students attend 2016 Who Will Own the Forest Conference

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September, 2016

The Langdale Center for Forest Business (LCFB) sponsored six forest business graduate students to attend the Who Will Own the Forest Conference (WWOTF) in the Pacific Northwest. The WWOTF, organized by the World Forestry Center, takes place in Portland, Oregon each Fall.  The conference is one of the primary timberland investment conferences attended by 400+/- industry professionals each year.  The two and a half-day event covers various topics on the maturing and evolving asset, and examines the issues that will affect the demand for commercial timber, diversified values from forestland, and maximize returns to investors.

The LCFB offers sincere thanks to Outdoor Underwriters as well as Campbell Global for their support of these students in attending the WWOTF this year.  The opportunity to attend conferences like WWOTF coupled with coursework focusing on core business and forest management provides exceptional exposure to and preparation for the many career paths available to our students.  The LCFB is committed to providing relevant industry exposure such as attending WWOTF to its graduates as they approach graduation and enter the job market.

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Left to right: Jack Durgin, Will Ficklen, John Mulloy, John Miller, Andrew Carey, Ty Gillespie.

 

Masters Students on Field Camp

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This May saw a number of current Masters of Forest Resources students attending the school’s annual field camp.

The camp comprises of three weeks split by subject area:

  • Week 1: Operations
  • Week 2: Silviculture
  • Week 3: Mensuration

During the operations week, the students visited a number of sites in Alabama. Logging operations, mills and manufacturing facilities were all on the menu. Our hosts were incredibly welcoming and put up well with the barrage of questions that the students fired their way.

The silviculture week exposed the students to a number of systems that differ greatly from what we may consider typical down in loblolly pine country. Longleaf regeneration and management near Savannah, a stop off at the Cradle of Forestry and a comprehensive look at hardwood management for different landowner objectives filled up the week pretty quickly. We also stopped off for a lesson on prescribed burning in the Tallulah Gorge National Forest that was especially interesting.

Right as summer arrived we started mensuration week with a short drive to a Warnell owned forest. Armed with cruising gear and brush-pants, the students spent the week marking off sample plots and surveying stands in a variety of growth stages. Too early for blueberries this year, everyone had to make do with packed lunches. I believe the record this year stands at 84 ticks found one one person in a single day.

Field camp provided an excellent primer for students that are newer to forestry, while giving those more experienced a chance to delve deeper into the industry by exposing them to some of the best operations, silvicultural systems and surveying practices in North America.

Summer is Upon Us

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We hope everyone has been enjoying the great Spring weather that we’ve been given so far this year. Our students in the Center for Forest Business are definitely getting into the mindset that Summer is here – in fact, this week is the beginning of final exams for all students and both end-of-semester exams and semester project deadlines are imminent! While many of our students in the Center for Forest Business either have jobs or internships lined up for the Summer, there are still some very qualified students available for both full-time employment upon graduation as well as Summer employment through an internship.

 

If you haven’t checked in on the CFB Student Directory recently, please take a minute to check it out here CFB Student Directory to see a full roster of the graduate students enrolled in the Forest Business program here at Warnell. Feel free to reach out to anyone directly through their listed contact information or let us know if we can help you with anything else by contacting the school directly.

WDRP Blog: Klausner – and then there were two

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The recent and long anticipated announcement by Florida’s Governor Rick Scott about the forthcoming construction of Klausner’s 700 MMBft/year  sawmill in Suwannee County, Florida is the second of Klausner’s recently announced mills in the US South. Another confirmed location, in Halifax County North Carolina was announced in late December by the state’s Governor Bev Perdue.  At this time it is unknown whether the third potential site, near Orangeburg, South Carolina will go ahead.

While the confirmed (and one proposed) state-of-the-art lumber mills in the Southern states add to the excitement of economic recovery (just look at the recent housing starts) and prospective employment in Halifax and Suwanee Counties, we at the Center wanted to run a quick wood demand in the wood basins of the three facilities. First, we designated an 85-mile radius around confirmed or potential mill locations in North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina (see map to the right). Next, a historic wood consumption report was run using Wood Demand data[1]. And finally, incremental wood consumption for each Klausner’s mill was estimated using public information about proposed maximum lumber capacity[2], average effective capacity utilization in the region[3] and an assumption about log-to-lumber yield[4].  The resulting comparative analysis would outline the relative impact of additional timber demand from each new facility in the corresponding wood basin on total basin timber demand.

Florida basin. Wood demand for pine grade[5] timber declined 37.2% between 2006 and 2012. For the past 12 months demand in the basin was mostly flat, and in Q3 2012 it reached its lowest level in the past 6 years. A new Klausner lumber mill can potentially add 61% to pine grade demand in the basin, pushing demand up to the top of 2006. The timber stumpage[6]-demand relationship for the basin is close to unity, suggesting that additional demand, when realized and everything being equal may push stumpage prices to 2006-levels. However, we think that it is unlikely, as 6 years of declining demand in the basin (and outside) have substantially changed timber supply and, as a result, will likely lead to a smaller than historical impact on stumpage prices.

North Carolina Basin. Wood Demand for pine grade declined 32% in the basin between 2006 and 2012. Wood demand reached its lowest point in Q4 2009 and since then has been slowly rising for the past 3 years. A new Klausner lumber mill can potentially add 50% to pine grade demand in the basin, pushing demand up slightly past the top of 2006. The timber stumpage-demand relationship for the basin is ~30% below that in the Florida basin, suggesting that additional demand, when realized and all else constant, may push stumpage prices to just below 2006-levels. However, we think that similar to Florida basin it is unlikely, as 6 years of declining demand in the basin (and outside) have changed timber supply in the basin and will likely lead to a smaller than historical impact on stumpage prices.

South Carolina basin. The basin is hypothetical as no official confirmation about a mill location has been received. The basin is the smallest of the three by size, and historically has been the least impacted by the recent recession. Wood Demand for pine grade declined 22% in the basin between 2006 and 2012. Wood demand reached its lowest point in Q4 2009 and since then has been very slowly rising for the past 3 years. A new Klausner lumber mill can potentially add 60% to pine grade demand in the basin, pushing demand way past the top of 2006.  The timber stumpage-demand relationship for the basin is ~55% below that in Florida basin, suggesting that additional demand, when realized and nothing else changed, may have relatively limited impact on stumpage prices. The stumpage price impact may be further mitigated by additional supply that has been preserved due to postponed harvests and lower demand in the past 6 years.

Bottom line. New mills in Florida and North Carolina basins and potentially in SC will have substantial impact on wood demand of pine grade and will likely lift stumpage prices in respective basins. Pine sawtimber stumpage impact from demand fluctuation historically was the highest in Florida and the lowest in South Carolina basins. Stumpage price impact, when facilities open, will be mitigated by an increased supply of pine grade timber. Supply of pine grade has increased in the basin and in the region due to the prolonged decline of timber demand and postponed harvests in the region.

[1] Wood Demand Research Program, Center for Forest Business.
[2] We assume that each location will have a reported maximum of 700 MMBft/year capacity.
[3] Wood Demand Report, Q4 2012. Center for Forest Business.
[4] We assumed a yield of 4.5 tons/MBf of lumber produced.
[5] Pine grade includes pine sawtimber, pine chip-n-saw and pine plywood.
[6] Stumpage prices – Timber Mart-South, area-weighted prices based on the overlap with the basin.

WDRP blog: OSB capacity on the rise

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In a recent letter, Louisiana Pacific informed its consumers that it plans to re-open a long curtailed OSB mill in Clarke County, Alabama[1] by April 2013. The mill was indefinitely curtailed in the fourth quarter 2008 on declining demand for OSB after being in operation for about a year. The news follows an earlier announcement by Georgia-Pacific (G-P) to start a new OSB facility in Clarendon County, South Carolina early in 2013[2]. The mill is a sister facility of Allendale OSB, which G-P opened in 2010. G-P purchased both Allendale and the unfinished Clarendon facility from Grant Forest Products in early 2010.

Both statements speak to producers’ confidence and expectation for housing recovery next year. Combined with recent builders’ confidence and a rally of housing starts, these announcements indicate that housing is on strong footing and this sector of the economy is set for a near-future turn-around.

But what impact will these openings have on markets for structural panels and, especially, timber markets? The two announced mills will add about 9% to currently operating OSB capacity in US South. The impact of new capacity in each state will be much larger, 44% and 77% in South Carolina and Alabama, respectively. The move may lift pine pulpwood prices in each market, but the impact will be moderate as each facility will likely be gradually reaching its full capacity during 2013. Even at full capacity, the marginal consumption from the new facilities will increase the total demand for pine pulpwood by 7.4% and 6.5% in Alabama and South Carolina, respectively.


[1] Random Length 11/20/2012

[2] http://www.gp.com/newsroom/newsarticle.asp?newsid=10330